The nginx web server fails to start on a Plesk server: "nginx: [emerg] bind() to 203.0.113.2:443 failed (99: Cannot assign requested address)"

Symptoms

• The Plesk panel data (including the web server configuration files) has been recently migrated to a new Plesk server

• The nginx web server fails to start and the following error is shown in the Plesk GUI:

  New configuration files for the Apache web server were not created due to the errors in configuration templates: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 203.0.113.2:443 failed (99: Cannot assign requested address) nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

• The IP address 203.0.113.2 has been used during the migration, however it is no longer present on the network interfaces of the Linux server

Cause

The file /etc/nginx/plesk.conf.d/server.conf still contains the outdated 203.0.113.2 IP address, which is mentioned in the error message.

Resolution

Force the recreation of the nginx configuration file by following these steps:

1. Connect to the server via SSH as the root user

2. Disable nginx by executing the following command:

   # /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/nginxmng --disable

3. Enable nginx once again by executing the following command:

   # /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/nginxmng --enable

After this has been done, the IP address that was causing the issue should not be present within the /etc/nginx/plesk.conf.d/server.conf file any longer.